Letter: No room for climate skepticism

There is a saying in law: If the law is on your side, pound the law; if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if neither are on your side, pound the table.

David Walton's recent letter from Jan. 14 against human-caused global warming and the highly respected scientists whose peer-reviewed work supports it is a good example of pounding the table. Exhaustive examinations by multiple organizations in two countries found no evidence that data were fudged by Michael Mann, and NASA scientist James Hansen's predictions in 1989 about the consequences of increasing carbon dioxide have been largely confirmed. More than 95 percent of publishing climate scientists agree.

Using Mr. Walton's reasoning, Rex Tillerson would have to be one of those "global warming hysteria mongering" types. Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the world, has accepted the "junk science" and the "weak and garbage hypotheses," acknowledging in a speech that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. (Enterprise/Mercury, 6/28/12.)

Of course there is always more to learn about global warming, but shouldn't we be willing to learn? Name calling, factually challenged diatribes generate more heat than light and, in my opinion, add little to our collective education.

SkepticalScience.com does a great job of identifying and explaining most of the concerns expressed by global warming skeptics. I highly recommend it to those interested in separating fact from fiction.